Listen, there is just absolutely no reason
that Madison, Maddie, whatever her name is, would not be
able to know that her neighbor was getting killed
two feet away from her.
It is absolutely impossible.
(intro music)
Hello and welcome back to the channel and Film Fridays.
I know it's been a while, but I lost my notes for
this movie called Hush.
If you don't know what Hush is,
it is a movie that came out on Netflix
and it stars Kate Siegel.
You might know her from the show called
Haunting of Hill House.
Hush is a horror movie.
To put it simply it is about a deaf woman who lives
alone in the middle of nowhere.
She has a couple of neighbors.
She's a writer and she moved out to
the middle of nowhere for writing.
This is a movie that many hearing people loved.
They thought it was a great movie.
They thought they really understood what
it would be like to be deaf in the middle of nowhere,
and what would happen if some murderer,
who we don't even
understand why he was there in the first place,
or why he wanted to kill her in the first place.
They just think they understand that this is what
it would be like.
People have recommended this movie
to me, to watch and I've seen people recommend
this movie to other people.
Especially with Bird Box coming out and what not.
I just want to say overall, stop recommending this movie.
I'm going to tell you why.
First things first, there's no real actual deaf
representation which is already a problem in itself
because what happens when you don't have
an actual deaf person playing a deaf person,
you get things incorrect.
I understand that this is a horror movie and
horror movies are fantasy, as well as other movies out there
unless they are based on a true story.
But, a little something right would be really nice and
just the fact that, you know, deaf actors want jobs too.
This should have been perfect for them.
One of the biggest complaints about the movie was how the
ASL was.. (disappointed shrug)
Which is really the case for a lot of films that have
hearing people who don't know ASL, playing a deaf person
who does know ASL or sign language in general.
Now, I am no expert.
I said this when I did my video on A Quiet Place,
but I even found it to be a little bit...
And, you know, when you have people who are fluent in this
language and have been using it all their life, they really
know what they're talking about.
So, you know, I want to take their comments
and take them seriously.
I remember one scene in particular.
I think it was when she was talking to her neighbor
in the beginning, and, you know, there are some cases
when you're supposed to put your damn eyebrows down.
You know when you're kind of asking a question,
the who, what, when, where, why sort of questions.
She doesn't put her eyebrows down.
It's like, can you please put your eyebrows down?
Now with the whole deaf representation thing
Mike Flanagan, is that his name?
He said that the reason why he wanted a hearing person to
play this part is because there is spoken dialogue in this.
But in the person's mind.
In Maddie's head.
It happens at the end of the movie when, you know, you're
supposed to start wrapping things up and get ready to kill
the bad guy, right?
All I could think of is, that reasoning is hilarious
to me because there are a lot of oral deaf people,
or just deaf actresses that are able to speak,
and they do choose to speak sometimes.
For example, Shoshannah Stern.
You might have seen her in Jericho and Weeds.
She was Eileen, was that her characters name?
Eileen in Supernatural.
All three of those were speaking parts.
My friend, Amanda McDonough, she grew up speaking
and she has also done a lot of speaking roles.
Marlee Matlin might be too old to play the role, but
she has also done speaking roles.
So you would have been able to find a deaf person
who can speak for this film.
Or if you really wanted to, you could just take a deaf
actress for the role and then have Kate do the voiceover.
Easy, simple fixes.
Going back to the part about the neighbor and how
they were speaking in the beginning of the video.
One of the things that Maddie says is,
"You don't have to sign."
If a person is learning sign language for you.
If a person is learning sign language for us
in order to make communication easier, we love that.
I can't think of anybody who flat out says, if they
are trying, and they really wanna make things work,
and make things accessible for you. I don't know any of
us who have actually said, "You don't need to do that."
When I'm going to random people at the airport
or something and I need something done quickly, I
don't need you to sign and learn how to say something
in five seconds. I don't need you to hold up your
phone, and wait, and pause the conversation,
and look up how to say "hi" or "how are you."
But, if you were somebody that I know and you have
been really trying, why wouldn't I want you to do that?
That was so weird to me.
I found it very odd that there were no
flash alerts on her phone.
I have flash alerts on all of my phones.
I have them on this.
I have them on my iPhone back there.
So if there's an emergency or something, you're aware.
Or do deaf people in general just not do that?
I wanna know.
Do you have-
My fellow deaf friends and viewers, do you have your
flash alerts on your phone because I feel like that's
just a thing that we do.
I don't think they were on her laptop either.
And while I'm here, I should mention that I also
did a video about Hush.
It was an interview with
spookyastronauts A.K.A Emma, and she brought up when
they're outside and the kitchen is practically burning
down and the alarm is going off.
The smoke alarm has lights on. She doesn't really notice
it until it's too late.
I can kind of relate to that because if they were
really far away and they're not in an enclosed space.
They're out in the open.
The house behind them is enclosed but you can't really
see the lights flashing.
Especially in peripheral vision.
I can get that.
I'm not mad at that.
SimCom A.K.A. simultaneous...
SimCom A.K.A. speaking and signing at the same time.
Basically trying to use two completely different
languages at the same time.
It doesn't work out.
It's very clunky and I also personally hate doing it.
It can be difficult to understand.
If you are able to sign well enough, which the neighbor
looked like she was able to, you should be able just
not use SimCom
But, you know,
the reason why hearing people do this in their movies
is purely for hearing audience.
Now here's where things really tick me off.
When her neighbor slams herself into the kitchen door
because Maddie is cleaning the dishes and she's not
even maybe five feet from the door.
Her neighbor is banging on the door.
Glass door and the woman
has no damn idea that there's vibrations going on.
That's just not possible.
Unless Maddie were to have this weird thing where
she cannot actually feel anything.
This is just not possible.
When you bang on something really loud, you're creating
force, right, and it vibrates and it spreads.
Someone who is just a few feet away from the door
is going to feel that.
You will feel stomping.
You will feel knocking on the door.
Let me tell you, when I'm upstairs right here, I can
hear when something is going on downstairs or I can
feel when something is going on downstairs.
When I was in a different apartment,
when people would be coming in and out of the door
on the other side of the apartment, even when it was
just gently being shut, I could feel that.
It is just mind boggling that they make it so that
Maddie has absolutely no idea that her neighbor
is banging for her life on the door.
Now, would Maddie had been able to save her?
Maybe not, but at least she would have
acknowledged it and tried.
That part just makes me so angry.
That is by far the worst part of this entire movie.
That alone, is why I don't recommend this movie at all.
So ASL is very visual, especially in the face, right?
Your face is part of the grammar.
When Maddie is trying to tell her sister that
something is really loud,
I swear, she has the most boring facial expressions.
She's just like, "It's loud."
I'm like, woman, it's loud!
Come on, get that in your face, ma'am.
Come on!
Just get that in your face!
Who takes way too long to call 9-1-1?
This woman is playing cat and mouse with this
random guy who we still don't understand why he's
there in the first place, besides to kill her.
You would think maybe there's a reason.
Just because it's a movie you would think there's
some back story about this but, she's just playing
cat and mouse this entire time.
For like ten minutes.
She doesn't want to try to call 9-1-1
Also, when the male neighbor, the neighbor's husband
comes over and he's like,
"Oh, well, she can't call 9-1-1"
Yes, we can!
First of all, there's video.
Second of all, can't we text 9-1-1 now.
I think we can text 9-1-1 now?
But also, I would assume that this is something that
works in real life,
watching it in the TV shows and movies
but this is a movie right?
If you call 9-1-1 and leave it there, they can still
ping your location, I would hope, and get you there.
At the very least you could probably shout,
"Hi, I'm deaf," over and over and then, I don't know, they would still
figure out, hey, this is an emergency.
I feel like people have done this in real life before.
This is something that I would do.
She just takes way too long to call 9-1-1 and of course,
you know what happens?
The power goes out.
The evil guy cuts the power because that is a...
And, you know, when they're having that stare down and
the guy goes, "Can you read my lips?"
First of all, why is this always the most popular question
with hearing people?
Also, he barely moves his mouth anyway.
No. Nobody can read your lips when you're basically
talking with your mouth closed.
Also, it's too dark.
How is anyone supposed to be able to read your lips
when it's too dark?
You wouldn't- You can't see anybody!
You can't lip read in the dark!
You need light!
Even then, thirty to forty percent of the English
language can only, maybe, possibly be read under
the best circumstances.
Great lighting, no other background noise and
distractions if the person has residual hearing.
Lip reading is too difficult.
A lot of people can't do it.
But of course, this person, this deaf person is a great lip reader.
Like an expert at it.
Every single deaf person made by a hearing person
is an expert at lip reading.
The fact that she's too quiet in this doesn't make
any sense to me.
We are loud people.
I like to think that we are loud people because
we can't hear that we are being loud.
For example, when I think I'm whispering, I'm too loud
and China can hear me.
When I think that I'm being sneaky now, I used to be
really good at this, but now, I'm not so sneaky anymore.
People know when I'm coming.
When I think that I'm closing a door
or putting things down quietly.
No, I'm bad. I'm bad. People can hear it.
We are so noisy! But this movie is like...
Maddie is so wonderfully quiet. No. That's- no.
Also, peripheral vision and vibrations suddenly exist
now that her neighbor is dead and when this guy is
doing not as loud things as her neighbor.
She suddenly knows that he's doing stuff.
I seem to recall something about being deaf-mute.
Somebody said "deaf-mute".
I think it was the neighbor's husband again.
That's a term that we don't like in the community.
It's very outdated.
So should you ever make a movie or a book or anything
with a deaf character, just say "deaf".
Deaf and non-verbal if they are non-verbal.
There are out of frame signs, also a very popular thing.
This also occurs at Switched at Birth a lot and,
yes, I will have something on that eventually.
If you're gonna do a movie with sign language in it,
keep the language in the frame.
I think what really makes this movie bad for a lot of
us in the community is the reaction from Mike and Kate.
But even with the most calm, constructive criticism,
these people were blocking left and right.
Kate Siegel has me blocked.
I think Mike might have me blocked.
It's just something that keeps on happening.
You know, there's job opportunities that are perfect for us but
people want to take it away.
And then, you know, in the same sort of sentence, in the same breath,
people wonder why we don't even try.
People are like, "Why don't you try and audition?"
You kind of have to be given the opportunity to
attempt to be able to audition because a lot of times,
these people just flat out don't want
us to try to do anything.
Whether it's audition for a movie or apply for your
regular mainstream jobs.
Overall, I don't recommend this movie.
If you want a deaf movie, a deaf horror movie, watch A Quiet Place.
But you know what? You are welcome to your own opinion and if you
have a different one or if you have a similar one,
you can leave it down below in the comments and we
can talk about it.
As always, I very much appreciate you watching
and if you would like to help translate this video,
I'll have a translation link down below.
Go check that out.
Again, thank you very much for watching
and I'll see you later. Bye!
(music)